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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/24024784">This Day Has Been a Long Time Coming</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/liairene/pseuds/liairene'>liairene</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Emma - Jane Austen, Persuasion - Jane Austen, Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen, Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/M, Modern Era, Small Towns, Weddings</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-05-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-05-05</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-03 01:06:53</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>5,141</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/24024784</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/liairene/pseuds/liairene</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>Emma Woodhouse and George Knightley are getting married. Finally. </p><p>Just so long as her father shows up and Ed Ferrars doesn't lose his shoes.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Anne Elliot/Frederick Wentworth, Colonel Brandon/Marianne Dashwood, Elinor Dashwood/Edward Ferrars, Elizabeth Bennet/Fitzwilliam Darcy, George Knightley/Emma Woodhouse</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series:</b></td><td>A Visitor's Guide to Highbury [22]</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Series URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/series/908481</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>26</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>This Day Has Been a Long Time Coming</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>“I only have one shoe.”</p><p>Nora Dashwood looked up from the book she was reading to see her boyfriend holding up one brown dress shoe. “That’s odd. You were wearing two when you got here.”</p><p>“I know.”</p><p>“Let’s see. You got here, and you took off your shoes before you got changed and went for a run. Then you came back, took a shower, and got dressed.”</p><p>“And somewhere in there, my shoe went missing.”</p><p>“That’s odd,” she said. “Did you look in my bedroom?”</p><p>“Why would my shoe be in your bedroom? I took my shoes off when I walked in.”</p><p>Nora sighed. “Just check. You and I both know that things end up in odd places.”</p><p>“It’s not going to be there. I’m telling you.”</p><p>“Just check,” she repeated. “We need to be at the church in fifteen minutes. Just check.”</p><p>He rolled his blue eyes. “Fine, I’ll check, but it’s not going to be there.”</p><p>Nora shrugged and wordlessly went back to <em>The Swan Thieves</em>.</p><hr/><p>Less than two minutes later, Ed returned to the living room with one brown dress shoe in each hand. He sat down on the coffee table. “Give me a second to put these on, and then we can go.”</p><p>“Okay.”</p><p>“And don’t say anything, not a word.”</p><p>“I’m not saying anything,” Nora replied with her eyes still on her book. “I’m reading.”</p><p>“Right, well, my shoes are tied, so let’s go,” he said as he stood up.</p><p>She put the book on the coffee table and hopped off the couch. “Okay, let me put on my jacket, and we can go.”</p><p>“Who is driving?”</p><p>“You are,” she replied. “I want to have more than two glasses of wine with dinner.”</p><p>“Alright,” he said as he put on his own coat. “Let’s do this thing. Let’s get George and Emma married.”</p><hr/><p>Twelve minutes later, Ed pulled his silver sedan into the parking lot behind St. Martha’s Catholic Church. Elsa and Will’s dark blue SUV was already there as was Annie and Erik’s gray hatchback. A bright blue SUV that was likely John and Isabella Knightley’s car was in the parking lot. As Ed and Nora were getting out of their car, Oliver and Alice Kingsleigh’s minivan pulled in. Ed waved to them and then looked at his girlfriend. “Where are the bride and groom?”</p><p>She adjusted her purse straps with a shrug. “Beats me. They’re both pretty punctual.”</p><p>“Odd,” Ed replied.</p><hr/><p>In the vestibule of the church, they found Erik and Annie Wentworth, Will and Elsa Darcy with tiny baby Clara, and John and Isabella Knightley with their five children. “No Emma and George?” Ed queried as they walked in.</p><p>“It’s Dad,” John sighed.</p><p>“My dad, his dad is fine,” Isabella clarified. “When we left, he was fussing about Lord alone knows what, and he was supposed to ride with George and Em. But at this rate, I don’t know.”</p><p>“Babe, we’re not going back to get him,” John said. “What about the kids?”</p><p>“There are six relatively responsible adults here,” his wife said as Chris Brandon walked in. “Okay, there are seven. Elsa can be responsible for sweet baby Clara, and the other six of them can wrangle our hellions.”</p><p>“Iz, this is a little crazy.”</p><p>“Yeah, well, keeping your daughter and her fiancé from their wedding rehearsal is a lot crazy.”</p><p>Chris looked at Ed. “What’s going on?”</p><p>“Apparently Henry is stalling things back at his house, and so the bride and groom are delayed.”</p><p>“So Iz and John are arguing about whether or not they should go back to the house so Em and George can come here,” Nora added.</p><p>“It’s only two minutes away,” Chris said.</p><p>Isabella pointed at him. “See, John? You know that Chris is right. My dad’s place is two minutes away. We leave the kids here, and we’ll go rescue my sister and your brother.”</p><p>John sighed. “Woodhouse women, they never change.”</p><p>“Annie, can you take Emily?” Isabella handed her infant daughter to Annie. “Cate, stay with Miss Nora. Henry, Jack, and George…”</p><p>“We’ve got them,” Erik said. “Go. We’ll sort the kids out.”</p><p>“Right,” Isabella said as she looked around. “We’ll be back shortly.”</p><p>John and Isabella hurried out of the church, and a few moments later, Oliver and Alice came in with their brood of girls. “Did John and Iz just leave?” Alice queried.</p><p>“Henry is causing drama,” Elsa began. “And so John and Iz are going back to the house to sort him out so that Em and George can come here.”</p><p>“Oh Henry,” Alice sighed. “I knew that he was going to do something to make this weekend more complicated than it needs to be.”</p><p>“Was he this bad for Isabella’s wedding?” Oliver asked.</p><p>“You weren’t around for Isabella’s wedding?” Will stared at Oliver. “I thought you’d been around forever.”</p><p>The British man shook his head. “I knew Alice by then, and we might have been dating, but we weren’t serious enough that I would have flown across the ocean for her cousin’s wedding.”</p><p>“We were twenty-one when they got married,” Alice added. “John and Iz got married five years before us.”</p><p>“I was around,” Erik spoke up. “He was absurd. He kept talking about how Izzy was just another person leaving him and how could she do that to him. He also spent a lot of time talking about how happy he was that Emma would never get married and leave him.”</p><p>“You were around back then?” Oliver asked.</p><p>“Yeah, I was twenty-one. Actually I went to that wedding with Annie.”</p><p>“I always forget about that whole thing,” Oliver replied.</p><p>Erik nodded with a tense look on his face. “I wish I could.”</p><p>George and Emma burst through the doors halting any further reminiscing. “Okay,” Emma breathed heavily. “We’re here. Let’s get this road on the show.”</p><p>“My parents are right behind us,” George added. “The missing groomsman and bridesmaid will get here with Emma’s dad when they get here.”</p><p>“Right,” Will said clapping his hands together. “Fr. Mark is waiting for us in the church. He did tell me that he wasn’t sure how necessary a rehearsal was for this wedding given that most of us have been in a wedding together at St. Martha’s in the past year.”</p><p>“Hey,” Erik said. “It’s been almost ten months since I was a groomsman. I don’t remember what I’m supposed to do.”</p><p>“It’s really easy,” Chris told him. “You walk down to the front of the church with a girl on your arm, stand at the front, behave yourself, and walk back out with the same girl at the end.”</p><p>“Is that it?” Erik asked.</p><p>“Let’s get in the church,” Emma said. “Fr. Mark is waiting, and we’re already behind. I don’t want to miss my dinner reservations.”</p><p>“Come on, kiddos,” Nora said. “If you’re a ring bearer or a flower girl, get in the church.”</p><p>“I’m not a ring bearer,” ten-year-old Jack said. “And Emily isn’t a flower girl.”</p><p>“And if you’re Jack,” George added. “Get in the church anyway. The reason that you’re not a ring bearer is because you don’t want to be one.”</p><p>“Come on, Miss Emily,” Annie said as she followed Elsa into the church. “You still get to wear a pretty dress tomorrow even if you don’t get to walk down the aisle.”</p><p>“We’re here,” a new voice called out as the doors opened and closed. John and Resa Knightley had arrived. John Knightley was, like his sons, tall and strong. His blue eyes were hidden behind silver-rimmed glasses, and his once-blond hair had faded to silver. Resa Knightley was of average height and weight, but she had given George and John Jr. their dark brown hair and John his dark brown eyes.</p><p>“Thank goodness,” George said. “</p><p>His mother sighed. “I moved to Arizona four years ago, and that meant that I don’t have to try to manage Henry Woodhouse anymore.”</p><p>“So they’ll get here when they get here?” Emma asked.</p><p>Her soon-to-be mother-in-law squeezed her arm. “I’m sorry, Em. I really am.”</p><p>“No,” Emma replied with a smile that didn’t quite reach her eyes. “It’s fine. I know my father. I know what he’s like. I should be used to this by now.”</p><p>Resa wrapped her arm around Emma’s shoulders. “It’s your wedding, my dear. You’re allowed to be upset when things aren’t going to plan even if you aren’t surprised.”</p><p>Emma rested her ginger head against Resa’s salt-and-pepper locks and smiled. “What would I do without you?”</p><p>“Thank the Lord you’ll never have to find out.”</p><hr/><p>“Right, so I want John and Isabella to walk down together first,” Emma explained to the assembled group.</p><p>“We’ll tell them,” Nora replied.</p><p>“Thanks. Then, Alice and Chris will follow them.”</p><p>“If the kids will survive without Alice in the back,” George added.</p><p>Oliver shrugged. “It’ll be fine. I can wait in the back and try to keep a lid on the pot until they go walk down. I don’t have to be in my seat during the bridal procession.”</p><p>“Okay,” Emma said. “Elsa, who will have Clara?”</p><p>“My mom will be sitting with your dad.”</p><p>“Tell her that I’ll canonize her for this.”</p><p>Elsa shrugged. “She is your godmother. I think that she’s okay with this.”</p><p>Emma smiled. “Anyway, Ed and Nora, you’re after Chris and Alice. Then Will and Elsa will walk down the aisle. Then the kiddos, and then it’s Dad and me if he can handle that.”</p><p>“He’ll be here,” George reassured her. “He’s your dad, and he loves you. He will be here. Your dad will not miss your wedding.”</p><p>Emma leaned against her fiancé. “Keep telling me that. Just keep telling me that.”</p><p>He opened his mouth. “Your dad will not…”</p><p>His fiancée tapped his lips with her finger. “It’s a finger of speech, George. Shut up so we can all practice walking in and out of church.”</p><p>“You really just want to get this rehearsal over with, don’t you?” Nora commented.</p><p>“I really just want to eat tacos,” Emma admitted. “I missed lunch today.”</p><p>“Why did you do that?” George asked.</p><p>“How can you do that?” Elsa blurted. “I don’t think I could ever miss a meal.”</p><p>“You work in a bakery-café,” Emma said.</p><p>“You work at a vineyard.”</p><p>“So I could eat oyster crackers and get drunk?”</p><p>“Oh lord,” George sighed. “Let’s get this rehearsal done, so Emma can eat tacos.”</p><hr/><p>The entire bridal party excepting the bride herself had made it to the front of the church by the time John and Isabella arrived with Henry. “I’m here, I’m here,” he called as he walked into the church. “You didn’t start without me, did you?”</p><p>“Just the bridal party, Dad,” Emma said. “I’m waiting for you.”</p><p>Henry Woodhouse came to stand next to his younger daughter. He put a hand on her elbow and kissed her cheek. “I can’t believe that my baby is getting married.”</p><p>“I’m thirty-two, Dad,” she replied.</p><p>“You’ll always be my baby girl.”</p><p>She rolled her eyes. “Let’s just practice walking down the aisle.”</p><p>“Are you sure that you want to marry George? You don’t have to. Then you wouldn’t have to leave me.”</p><p>Emma bit her lip and then let out a long breath. “Dad, I love you; I really do. But I also love George. I love him, and tomorrow afternoon, I’m going to marry him. And right now, we need to walk down that aisle, practice the order of the ceremony, and then we’re going to Tres Hermanas so that I can eat tacos.”</p><p>“I don’t like tacos,” Henry protested faintly.</p><p>“My rehearsal dinner, Dad,” she replied with a sassy glint in her eye. “We’re having Mexican food.”</p><p>“Emma,” he began.</p><p>She looked up at the front of the church where her ring-bearers and flower girls were obviously getting a bit antsy, Elsa was rocking a fussy Clara Darcy, and Chris Brandon was walking with a fussy Madeleine Kingsleigh. “Dad, the kids are losing it. Let’s just do this.”</p><p>“Fine.”</p><hr/><p>They made it through the rehearsal without any other issues, and everyone made their way to the party room at Tres Hermanas. “Are you still planning on drinking three glasses of wine?” Ed asked Nora as they got in the car.</p><p>“No,” she said. “After that, I’m leaning towards three margaritas.”</p><p>He smiled. “That’s a lot of tequila.”</p><p>“Tonight and tomorrow are a lot of Henry Woodhouse.”</p><p>“Is Emma still spending the night with you tonight?”</p><p>She nodded. “Yeah, she wants to avoid more ‘you don’t have to marry George’ conversations as much as possible.”</p><p>“I get that.”</p><p>“Did you finish moving out of George’s?”</p><p>“Yep, everything is at Chris’s now.”</p><p>“This is what? Your third move this year?”</p><p>“Second move, but third roommate change,” Ed replied. “I lived with Will, but then I moved out to live with George and Erik. Then Erik moved out. Now I’m moving out of George’s place to live with Chris. And hopefully I’ll be there for a while.”</p><p>“I can’t see him and my sister getting married before us.”</p><p>“So you figure that I’ll live with Chris until we get married and then what? Come live with you?”</p><p>She shrugged with a mischievous smile. “Something like that, I guess.”</p><hr/><p>When they got to the restaurant, they found the Darcy family and the Kingsleigh family as well as Chris Brandon already there. Chris was holding eight-month-old Madeleine and talking with Oliver and Elsa who was holding Clara while Will was talking to Josie and Charlotte. Alice was talking to someone from the restaurant, presumably about food for her daughters.</p><p>Nora immediately joined Elsa, Oliver, and Chris. “Can I hold my goddaughter? Please?”</p><p>“Technically,” Oliver told her. “She’s not your goddaughter yet. She hasn’t been baptized yet.”</p><p>“She’s going to be baptized next weekend,” Nora retorted. “And her parents already chose me to be her godmother.”</p><p>Elsa rolled her eyes. “Clara love, do you want to go see Auntie Nora? She’d love to see you.”</p><p>Nora took the baby in her arms and grinned. “Hi, sweet lady, how are you?” She looked up. “Chris, is my sister coming tonight?”</p><p>“Yeah, she’ll be here soon. She had to close up at the shop first.”</p><p>“Good, right, Clara? That’s good. We’re looking forward to seeing Miss Marianne, aren’t we?”</p><p>“I don’t think she’s met Miss Marianne yet,” Elsa said. “Clara hasn’t met many people yet.”</p><p>“Well, I think that they’ll get along well. Marianne generally likes babies,” Nora said.</p><p>“Does she?” Chris asked with an odd look in his eye.</p><p>“I mean…” Nora began.</p><p>“In small doses,” Oliver said. “Or at least, that’s been my experience. She seems to enjoy my children in small doses.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Chris said. “That’s kind of been my impression. She thinks that kids are cute, but she’s not Elsa or Nora who actively want to be with kids as much as possible.”</p><p>“Hmmm,” Ed contributed. “This could be a problem.”</p><p>“Possibly,” Nora offered.</p><p>Chris Brandon and Marianne Dashwood had started dating over the summer. They each seemed to bring out some of the best aspects of the other, but there were difficulties. Marianne wanted to be married but didn’t feel that children were necessary for her to be happy. Chris, on the other hand, had never been shy about his desire to settle down and build a family.</p><p>“We’ll see,” Chris said. “This isn’t the time to debate my personal life.”</p><p>Just then George and Emma walked into the room rightfully drawing the attention of the room to themselves.</p><hr/><p>During dinner Nora and Ed found themselves sitting between George’s parents and Will and Elsa. Chris and Marianne were seated across from them. Nora observed that Chris was right and Marianne had almost no interest in baby Clara or any of the other children at the party. After he’d finished eating, Chris took baby Clara so Elsa could eat in peace, and Marianne barely acknowledged the baby while her boyfriend fixed his attention on the baby. “I love her hair,” he said running his fingers over her thick dark brown hair. “There’s just so much of it.”</p><p>“She gets that from her mother,” Will said.</p><p>Elsa rolled her eyes. “Francis William, have you ever seen a picture of yourself or of Gina when you were babies? You had just as much thick dark hair as she does.”</p><p>“I’m jealous,” Nora said. “I was bald until I was three.”</p><p>“We all were,” Marianne inserted. “You, me, Jamie, Jack…we were all bald until we were three or four.”</p><p>“But the Bennet girls were all born with full heads of hair,” Nora said. “They didn’t all have the same color of hair, but they all had full heads of hair from birth.”</p><p>“Sort of,” Elsa said. “Gwen, Cam, Lily, and I all had full heads of hair. Gwen’s and Cam’s were red, and Lily and I both had hair this color. But Maeve was a different story.”</p><p>“What happened to her?” Erik queried.</p><p>“It was awful,” Nora said.</p><p>“What happened?” he asked again.</p><p>Elsa answered, “She was born with red hair like Gwen’s but curly like mine. You should see pictures of it. It was thick dark red curls until she was like two and a half.”</p><p>“Then what happened?” Chris asked.</p><p>“It all fell out,” Elsa said.</p><p>“She was so bald, the poor thing,” Nora said. “And that was for like a year or so?”</p><p>“Yeah, her three-year-old preschool pictures are sad. And then her hair came back as a kind of chestnut brown like Annie’s.”</p><p>“But no curls?” Erik asked.</p><p>“No, it was straight like Gwen’s. But at least it’s still thick?”</p><p>“She is lovely,” Nora said.</p><p>“She’s just the plainest of the Bennet girls,” Marianne said.</p><p>Chris gave his girlfriend a sideways look that worried Nora, but it was Elsa who spoke. “You sound like my mother.”</p><p>“I don’t mean to.”</p><p>“Either way,” Chris inserted. “Little Clara here is lovely.”</p><p>“Very lovely,” Oliver offered looking over Chris’s shoulder. “But Will? My daughters are lovelier.”</p><p>“I didn’t know it was a competition.”</p><p>“Well, my daughters have no chance of looking anything like you.”</p><p>“Yes, but your daughters won’t look anything like you either,<br/>George informed him. “Knightley genes are super dominant genes, and your daughters will be all Knightley, all the time.”</p><p>“Oh, are they?” Emma asked. “Is that why Emily Knightley looks just like me?”</p><p>“Oh lord,” Alice sighed. “Let’s talk about something else. How is baseball season going?”</p><p>“Almost over,” Ed replied. “The World Series will wrap up this week.”</p><p>“How about football?”</p><p>“Which sort?” her English-born husband asked.</p><p>Alice rolled her eyes and put a hand over his mouth. “Shut it. You know what I’m trying to do.”</p><p>Oliver removed his wife’s hand and nodded. “Right, so, Will, how are the Bears?”</p><p>He sighed. “Ask Ed. I’m more interested in baseball and hockey, and you know that.”</p><hr/><p>The rest of the evening was relatively peaceful. After a few toasts and lots of jokes, the assembled went their separate ways. Ed drove Nora who had in the end only had one margarita home, and George followed with his fiancée. “Thanks for letting me stay with you tonight,” Emma said as Nora let them into the apartment.</p><p>“Oh of course, what’s the point of having a guest room if I don’t have guests?”</p><p>“I just do not want to stay under the same roof as my dad the night before my wedding.”</p><p>“He seems like he’s having a hard time with all of this.”</p><p>Emma sighed. “You’d think that I was dying, not moving down the street.”</p><p>“How are you feeling about moving out?”</p><p>“It’s weird. That’s the only house that I’ve ever lived in. I’m going to have a new bedroom for the first time in my life.”</p><p>Nora smiled. “That’s crazy to me.”</p><p>“Yeah, you’ve lived in a few different places. But I even lived at home during college.”</p><p>“I mean…you went to college in Highbury.”</p><p>“So did Elsa, and she lived in the dorms.”</p><p>Nora shrugged. “She wanted to get away from the Great Mary Frances.”</p><p>“But shouldn’t I have wanted to get away from my dad?”</p><p>“What would have happened if you’d tried?”</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>“And that was a long time ago,” Nora said. “You didn’t leave then, but you’re leaving now. And it’s not like you’re moving into a house that you don’t know. You’ve spent almost as much time at George’s house as you have at your own over the years.”</p><p>“But I’ve never spent the night. Tomorrow night will be the first time that I ever sleep there over night.”</p><p>“Wow.”</p><p>“I know,” Emma replied. “I’m truly pathetic.”</p><hr/><p>The next morning, Nora found herself in the basement of St. Martha’s getting ready for a friend’s wedding for the third time in the past year. “What is it that they say about three times a bridesmaid?” she joked.</p><p>“Three times a bridesmaid, you’ll probably get married next year?” Emma offered.</p><p>“I don’t think that’s it.”</p><p>“It should be. Ed has to propose soon.”</p><p>Nora shrugged. “We agreed back on New Year’s that we were moving towards marriage, but I don’t think that he’s the fastest moving guy on the planet.”</p><p>“How long did George and I date before we got engaged?” Emma asked.</p><p>“Who was the tortoise there?” Elsa inserted. “I don’t remember it being George.”</p><p>“It’s my wedding day. You have to be nice to me.”</p><p>“I do? I don’t remember that from any of the other weddings that I’ve been in.”</p><p>“Just don’t roast me in your toast.”</p><p>“So demanding,” Elsa sighed. “I wasn’t like that on my wedding day.”</p><p>“Yeah, well, your bridesmaids weren’t heckling you on your wedding day.”</p><p>“That’s because she didn’t need to be heckled,” Alice stated flatly.</p><hr/><p>Emma Woodhouse was undeniably a beautiful bride. She wore a vintage-inspired tea-length gown with long sleeves, a sheer dotted Swiss over cream satin, and a ten-layer petticoat. The lace headband she wore in her auburn hair matched the lace on the hems of her sleeves. “I’ve never seen you look so happy,” Elsa told the bride giving her a bouquet of red, orange, and yellow roses with purple and white accent flowers.</p><p>Emma looked at Elsa. “You know that part of <em>Little Women</em> where Meg tells her sisters that they can hug her on her wedding day because she wants lots of those sorts of crumples in her dress?”</p><p>Elsa smoothed the skirt of her dove gray bridesmaid dress. “Yes.”</p><p>“Well, I want lots and lots of those sort of crumples in my dress today.”</p><p>The maid of honor hugged the bride tightly and kissed her cheek. “I’m so happy for you, Em. I really am.”</p><p>Elsa went to talk to her mother about baby Clara, and Emma turned to Nora. “Come here, you.”</p><p>Nora hugged her. “You’re getting married, Emma. Can you believe it?”</p><p>“No,” Emma giggled. “That’s what adults do!”</p><p>Nora snorted. “You run a business. You have an MBA. But getting married is a thing that adults do?”</p><p>“Yeah, I got married when I was twenty-two,” Isabelle said. “You’re ten years older than I was.”</p><p>“Age doesn’t necessarily make me an adult,” Emma replied feebly.</p><p>“Emma Alexandra, you manage Dad, somehow. I don’t know how you do it. John and I are so glad that you stayed with him for as long as you did and that even now that you’re moving out you’ll still be nearby to manage him. I really don’t know how you do that because I can’t manage Dad for five minutes. You run a business while somehow making Dad think that he’s still running it. You amaze me, and you baffle me. You’re decidedly an adult.”</p><p>“An adult who can’t cook,” Annie said with a wink.</p><p>With tears in her eyes, Emma reached an arm out towards her tall friend. “Come here and crumple my dress, you.”</p><p>Annie joined Nora in squeezing Emma. “I’m proud of you, Em. You know that?”</p><p>“I’m going to ruin my makeup before we ever get upstairs,” Emma replied.</p><p>Annie kissed her cheek. “George won’t care.”</p><p>“George!” Emma exclaimed. “I’m going to marry George Knightley today.”</p><p>“Yeah,” Nora replied. “You are.”</p><p>“When I was four, I told him that I was going to marry him someday.”</p><p>“What did he say?” Annie queried.</p><p>Emma laughed. “He told me that he didn’t want to eat my mud cake because he hates mud and cake.”</p><p>“That’s why you’re having a wedding pie,” Elsa told her.</p><p>“And I love you for making it.”</p><p>Just then a masculine-sounding throat was cleared loudly. “Ladies? Mr. Woodhouse sent me to see if you’re ready.”</p><p>“Hey, Chris,” Emma sniffed.</p><p>“Em,” he smiled.</p><p>“I’m getting married today.”</p><p>“I know. That’s why I’m here to get you.”</p><p>“Come here and crumple my dress.”</p><p>He furrowed his brow. “What?”</p><p>“<em>Little Women</em>,” Elsa told him. “Don’t ask. Just hug her.”</p><p>Chris grinned and hugged Emma. “I’m so happy for you.” Then he offered her his left arm. “Your dad’s at the top of the stairs. Shall we?”</p><p>She took his arm. “Let’s do this.” She paused. “Wait. How did they decide that you were coming down to get me?”</p><p>“Other than John, I’m the groomsman who has known you the longest, and unlike John, I’m not trying to corral my children at the moment.”</p><p>She smiled. “I like it. Now, let’s get me hitched.”</p><hr/><p>Henry Woodhouse sniffled when he saw his daughter. “I can’t believe that this is really happening,” he said. “I can’t believe that you’re getting married.”</p><p>She smiled. “It’s real, Dad. I’m really marrying George.”</p><p>“You’re moving out.”</p><p>“Yeah,” she replied. “And that’s okay. But remember; I’ll just be down the street.”</p><p>“You don’t have to move out. You can just be friends with him.”</p><p>Emma scowled. “Dad, my bridesmaids are walking down the aisle. I’ve filed the fucking paperwork. And for God’s sake, I love George. I want to marry him. I’ll always love you, and you’ll always be my dad. But I’m thirty-fucking-two years old and I’m allowed to get married and move out of your house.”</p><p>“You’re swearing in church, Emma!”</p><p>She smiled. ”Yes, and I think that God is swearing too. You just can’t hear him.”</p><p>“Emma,” he said in a warning tone.</p><p>The music changed from Barber’s <em>Adagio for Strings</em> to Handel’s <em>Zadok the Priest</em>, and Emma shrugged. “It’s time, Dad. Walk me down that aisle.”</p><p>He sighed. “If you’re sure that this is what you want…”</p><hr/><p>“This day has been a long time coming,” Elsa began her toast that evening. “As I recall, Emma was four years old when she decided that she wanted to marry George. George took slightly longer to cotton on to the idea, and then there were practical details that had to be hammered out. But after twenty-eight years of preparing for this moment, Emma and George are finally married. Emma, I’ve known you pretty much my entire life, and I’ve long considered you to be one of my best friends. You’re an incredible human being. You’re stubborn, and I mean that as a compliment. You’re smart and funny and driven. You’re a good friend, and you care deeply about other people. You’re incredibly passionate, and I think that makes you a better person. I’m so happy to see you married to George, and I cannot wait to see the life that you two build together. I know that there are many others here this evening who feel the same way, so I hope that you’ll join me in raising your glasses to the Knightleys!”</p><p>“I heard about Emma for years before I ever met her,” Will Darcy began his toast. “I’m pretty sure that I heard of her about five minutes after I first met George. And over the past fifteen or so years, I’ve seen their relationship grow and change. It’s really incredible to see two people who you know well grow as individuals and through that grow into a really wonderful partnership.” He turned to face the bride. “Emma, we both know that George isn’t perfect. Yes, he does a lot of wonderful things, and he’s both smart and funny. You think he’s good-looking; I don’t know what you’re talking about. But Em, he’s not good at putting the toilet seat down. He will also correct your grammar until he’s blue in the face, which is probably because you punched him. But he’s a good man, and I think you two are a good team. So ladies and gentlemen, join me in raising your glasses to a long and prosperous life for the Knightleys!”</p><hr/><p>After the dancing began, Emma walked over to Nora who was standing talking to Chris and Ed. The bride gently tossed her bouquet to her bridesmaid. “Bouquet tosses are dumb, babes. But let’s face it. You’re next.”</p><p>Nora looked at the bouquet and shook her head. “You’re ridiculous, Em.”</p><p>“Nora, if you’re not married a year from today, I’ll give you one hundred dollars.” She turned to Ed. “I know a jeweler if you need help.”</p><p>“How much champagne have you had?” he replied.</p><p>“I don’t know.”</p><p>Ed shook his head. “Go eat some cake or something, Em.”</p><p>“Okay,” she replied in a chipper tone before wandering away.</p><p>Chris shook his head. “She’s something else.”</p><p>“She always has been,” Nora replied. “But really, I’m so happy for her.”</p><p>“They’re well-suited,” Chris agreed.</p><p>“I remember in college when he just complained about her to no end,” Ed said.</p><p>“The four years that he was in Lambton were really hard on her,” Nora said. “I think it was good for her to be separated from him, and I don’t think that they’d be married now if he had stayed in Highbury for college. But he did a lot for her when she was younger, and I think that she didn’t really realize it until he wasn’t there.”</p><p>“Is her dad going to be okay?”</p><p>“He will, but he depends on her for so much.”</p><p>Ed nodded. “And he’s never lived alone.”</p><p>“I can’t imagine that.” Chris had lived alone for most of the past ten years and was about to have a housemate for the first time since he returned to Highbury after leaving the army.</p><p>“Neither can I,” Nora agreed as she set Emma’s bouquet on the head table. “But right now, I’m going to kick off my shoes and make my boyfriend come dance with me.”</p><p>“Just make sure that you can still find both of those shoes when it’s time to go home,” Ed told her.</p><p>She set her shoes next to the bouquet. “Oh, I’m not the one who has a history of losing my shoes around here.”</p><p>He kissed her cheek. “Shut up and dance with me, woman.”</p><hr/><p> </p>
  </div><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_foot_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><blockquote class="userstuff"><p>During this time of quarantine, I've begun writing vignettes for my Highbury universe using the sillier sentences that I find while practicing my Spanish on Duolingo. This is the fourth of these stories, but it won't be the last.</p></blockquote></div></div>
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